In a must-win game, Utah had a typical road result, falling 92-85 to Oregon State late Thursday night.
The Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde act continued for the Utes, who have been one of the best teams in the nation at home and one of the worst when they’re on the road.
The past road performances (the Utes are now 2-8 on the road) and a home loss to Arizona State are why Utah was on the NCAA Tournament bubble entering Thursday despite a stellar home record, but if the Utes bucked the trend against Oregon State and Saturday against Oregon, they had a great chance to make the Big Dance
Utah’s NCAA tournament hopes were all but extinguished in Corvallis, barring a big run in the Pac-12 Tournament. The Utes could not afford a Quad 3 loss to Oregon State, which was 12-17 and 4-14 in conference play entering Thursday.
Here are three takeaways from the Utes loss to the Beavers.
Branden Carlson’s career high and the bench’s offensive no-show
Utah center Branden Carlson did everything in his power to will the Utes to a win Thursday. Carlson understood the urgency of the game and with time running out on his Ute career, he turned in his best offensive game, scoring a career-high 40 points on 61.5% shooting from the field and an efficient 50% from 3 and 75% from the free-throw line.
“He really tried to will us to this victory throughout the game and made some big-time plays, specifically late in the game to give us a chance,” Utah coach Craig Smith said.
Carlson contributed nearly half of Utah’s 85 points. At one point early in the second half, the big man went on an 11-0 run by himself to get the Utes within six points.
“He just played like a determined man, right, like a determined player and played like a fifth-year guy at the end of his last season. He just had a great mindset, a great look and was aggressive on that end of the floor and I thought our guys did a great job finding him,” Smith said.
Carlson has had a pretty stellar individual career during his time at Utah, sticking it out in Salt Lake City through a rebuild when Smith was hired in 2021.
He’ll end his career as the school’s all-time leader in blocked shots and games played, along with being in the top 10 in points, field goals made, offensive rebounds and defensive rebounds. He’s given his all to the program, and it’s a shame that it looks like he’ll never suit up in an NCAA tournament game for the Utes.
Credit Carlson’s teammates for being able to find him while he had it going on Thursday night, but the Utes needed more out of their bench players.
Deivon Smith had 19 points and Gabe Madsen added 13, but the other six players that saw minutes for Utah didn’t do much on the offensive side of the ball — especially the Utes’ bench, which was outscored 23-4.
“Listen, our bench needs to be better,” Craig Smith said. “Specifically our guards, we got little to no production out of our bench tonight. I did think Ben Carlson played well. He really defended at a high level, probably our best defensive player tonight, but we got to get more out of our guys.
“We have to get more production out of our bench so we don’t have to play these (starting) guys the amount of minutes that they’re playing.”
Defensive woes
Even with the poor showing by the bench players on offense, Utah still scored the most points it has all season in a road game. Utah certainly had its share of stretches when it went cold, especially in the first half, but overall, the Utes shot 52% from the field, were 36% from 3 and made 73% of their free throws in an 85-point performance.
Those kind of offensive numbers are usually going to be enough to win.
“At the end of the day, I mean we scored 85 points on the road. We got to find a way to get stops,” Craig Smith said.
But the Utes just couldn’t stop the Beavers. Oregon State scored a season-high 92 points on 51% shooting, 41% from 3-point range and 84% from the charity stripe.
“At the end of the day, we have to guard way better than we guarded tonight,” Craig Smith said. “Teams that do well on the road usually are good defensively because defense travels and we allow them to shoot 51% and obviously you get 92 points, it’s going to be very, very difficult to win.
“They go 9 for 22 from the three and 31 for 37 from the free throw-line, and those are two numbers that are going to be hard to overcome.”
Utah won the battle in the paint after a shaky first half in that area — outscoring Oregon State 46-28 down low — but didn’t have an answer for the Beavers’ guard play and 3-point shooting.
Guards Jordan Pope and Dexter Akanno combined for 43 points, while forward Tyler Bilodeau knocked down five 3-pointers and scored 20 points.
“... All those guys were very, very efficient from the field,” Craig Smith said.
Turnovers and struggles vs. the zone in the first half
Despite beating zone-heavy defensive teams like Stanford, the Utes struggled with Oregon State’s zone in a 33-point first half before figuring it out in a 52-point second half.
Utah went cold early and Oregon State took advantage with a 15-0 run to go up 22-13 with 11:10 remaining in the first half.
Exacerbating the problem was seven first-half turnovers that resulted in 14 points for Oregon State in the first 20 minutes.
The early offensive struggles put the Utes in a 13-point hole at halftime, a deficit they would not be able to overcome.
“Well, I thought we got off to a good start, up 13-7 … and then we went to our bench and we just didn’t get a whole lot,” Craig Smith said.
“We started throwing that thing all over the place and just some senseless turnovers quite frankly. And we had seen a lot of zone last weekend against Stanford and Cal and attacked it at a very high level. And so our concentration just needs to be a lot better than what it was. And once we settled in and stopped turning it over with about 10 minutes to go in that first half, I thought we did a great job against the zone and attacked it at a high level.”
UP NEXT: Utah closes out the regular season at Oregon on Saturday (5 p.m., Pac-12 Network) before heading to Las Vegas for the Pac-12 tournament next Wednesday. The Utes’ loss to the Beavers eliminated them from a top-four seed and a first-round bye in the conference tournament.